Emerging themes to support ambitious UK marine biodiversity conservation

Healthy marine ecosystems provide a wide range of resources and services that support life on Earth and contribute to human wellbeing. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are accepted as an important tool for the restoration and maintenance of marine ecosystem structure, function, health and ecosystem integrity through the conservation of significant species, habitats, or entire ecosystems. In recent years there has been a rapid expansion in the area of ocean designated as an MPA. Despite this progress in spatial protection targets and the progressive knowledge of the essential interdependence between the human and the ocean system, marine biodiversity continues to decline, placing in jeopardy the range of ecosystem services benefits humans rely on. There is a need to address this shortcoming. Ambitious marine conservation:• Requires a shift from managing individual marine features within MPAs to whole-sites to enable repair and renewal of marine systems;• Reflects an ambition for sustainable livelihoods by fully integrating fisheries management with conservation (Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management) as the two are critically interdependent;• Establishes a world class and cost effective ecological and socio-economic monitoring and evaluation framework that includes the use of controls and sentinel sites to improve sustainability in marine management; and• Challenges policy makers and practitioners to be progressive by integrating MPAs into the wider seascape as critical functional components rather than a competing interest and move beyond MPAs as the only tool to underpin the benefits derived from marine ecosystems by identifying other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) to establish synergies with wider governance frameworks

A trans-acting locus regulates an anti-viral expression network and type 1 diabetes risk

Combined analyses of gene networks and DNA sequence variation can provide new insights into the aetiology of common diseases that may not be apparent from genome-wide association studies alone. Recent advances in rat genomics are facilitating systems-genetics approaches. Here we report the use of integrated genome-wide approaches across seven rat tissues to identify gene networks and the loci underlying their regulation. We defined an interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF7)-driven inflammatory network (IDIN) enriched for viral response genes, which represents a molecular biomarker for macrophages and which was regulated in multiple tissues by a locus on rat chromosome 15q25. We show that Epstein-Barr virus induced gene 2 (Ebi2, also known as Gpr183), which lies at this locus and controls B lymphocyte migration, is expressed in macrophages and regulates the IDIN. The human orthologous locus on chromosome 13q32 controlled the human equivalent of the IDIN, which was conserved in monocytes. IDIN genes were more likely to associate with susceptibility to type 1 diabetes (T1D)-a macrophage-associated autoimmune disease-than randomly selected immune response genes (P = 8.85 x 10(-6)). The human locus controlling the IDIN was associated with the risk of T1D at single nucleotide polymorphism rs9585056 (P = 7.0 x 10(-10); odds ratio, 1.15), which was one of five single nucleotide polymorphisms in this region associated with EBI2 (GPR183) expression. These data implicate IRF7 network genes and their regulatory locus in the pathogenesis of T1D

Neuroimaging-based classification of PTSD using data-driven computational approaches: a multisite big data study from the ENIGMA-PGC PTSD consortium

Background: Recent advances in data-driven computational approaches have been helpful in devising tools to objectively diagnose psychiatric disorders. However, current machine learning studies limited to small homogeneous samples, different methodologies, and different imaging collection protocols, limit the ability to directly compare and generalize their results. Here we aimed to classify individuals with PTSD versus controls and assess the generalizability using a large heterogeneous brain datasets from the ENIGMA-PGC PTSD Working group. Methods: We analyzed brain MRI data from 3,477 structural-MRI; 2,495 resting state-fMRI; and 1,952 diffusion-MRI. First, we identified the brain features that best distinguish individuals with PTSD from controls using traditional machine learning methods. Second, we assessed the utility of the denoising variational autoencoder (DVAE) and evaluated its classification performance. Third, we assessed the generalizability and reproducibility of both models using leave-one-site-out cross-validation procedure for each modality. Results: We found lower performance in classifying PTSD vs. controls with data from over 20 sites (60 % test AUC for s-MRI, 59 % for rs-fMRI and 56 % for D-MRI), as compared to other studies run on single-site data. The performance increased when classifying PTSD from HC without trauma history in each modality (75 % AUC). The classification performance remained intact when applying the DVAE framework, which reduced the number of features. Finally, we found that the DVAE framework achieved better generalization to unseen datasets compared with the traditional machine learning frameworks, albeit performance was slightly above chance. Conclusion: These results have the potential to provide a baseline classification performance for PTSD when using large scale neuroimaging datasets. Our findings show that the control group used can heavily affect classification performance. The DVAE framework provided better generalizability for the multi-site data. This may be more significant in clinical practice since the neuroimaging-based diagnostic DVAE classification models are much less site-specific, rendering them more generalizable.Stress-related psychiatric disorders across the life spa

Geology of the Yucca Mountain Region, Chapter in Stuckless, J.S., ED., Yucca Mountain, Nevada - A Proposed Geologic Repository for High-Level Radioactive Waste

Yucca Mountain has been proposed as the site for the Nation's first geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste. This chapter provides the geologic framework for the Yucca Mountain region. The regional geologic units range in age from late Precambrian through Holocene, and these are described briefly. Yucca Mountain is composed dominantly of pyroclastic units that range in age from 11.4 to 15.2 Ma. The proposed repository would be constructed within the Topopah Spring Tuff, which is the lower of two major zoned and welded ash-flow tuffs within the Paintbrush Group. The two welded tuffs are separated by the partly to nonwelded Pah Canyon Tuff and Yucca Mountain Tuff, which together figure prominently in the hydrology of the unsaturated zone. The Quaternary deposits are primarily alluvial sediments with minor basaltic cinder cones and flows. Both have been studied extensively because of their importance in predicting the long-term performance of the proposed repository. Basaltic volcanism began about 10 Ma and continued as recently as about 80 ka with the eruption of cones and flows at Lathrop Wells, approximately 10 km south-southwest of Yucca Mountain. Geologic structure in the Yucca Mountain region is complex. During the latest Paleozoic and Mesozoic, strong compressional forces caused tight folding and thrust faulting. The present regional setting is one of extension, and normal faulting has been active from the Miocene through to the present. There are three major local tectonic domains: (1) Basin and Range, (2) Walker Lane, and (3) Inyo-Mono. Each domain has an effect on the stability of Yucca Mountain

Measuring effects on intima media thickness: An evaluation of Rosuvastatin in subclinical atherosclerosis - The rationale and methodology of the METEOR study

Background: Increased carotid intima media thickness (IMT) is associated with established coronary heart disease (CHD) and is a marker of atherosclerosis. Statins are an effective treatment for dyslipidaemia, and have been shown to retard progression or promote carotid IMT regression in patients at high risk of CHD. Rosuvastatin is a highly efficacious statin, and the Measuring Effects on intima media Thickness: an Evaluation Of Rosuvastatin ( METEOR) study is designed to assess the impact of rosuvastatin on carotid IMT progression in low risk subjects with signs of subclinical atherosclerosis. Methods: In this randomised, parallel-group study, asymptomatic subjects at low risk of cardiovascular disease, but with evidence of atherosclerosis ( defined as carotid IMT greater than or equal to 1.2 mm and <3.5 mm), will receive rosuvastatin ( 40 mg/day) or placebo for 104 weeks. The study will enrol 840 European and US subjects randomised 5: 2 between rosuvastatin and placebo. The primary end point will be the change in carotid IMT from baseline to study end, measured using B-mode ultrasonography. Other efficacy end points include changes in the serum lipid profile and C-reactive protein. Safety parameters will also be assessed. Conclusion: The METEOR study will evaluate whether long-term rosuvastatin treatment promotes regression, or slows progression, of subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic subjects at low risk of cardiovascular disease